


Until Dawn: Dark and Troubled

by JakeTheSnake5347



Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Betrayal, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Good and Evil, I'm Bad At Tagging, Josh in Love, Loss of Parent(s), Monsters, Protective Josh Washington, Redemption, Self-Sacrifice, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Sorry Not Sorry, Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:54:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 15,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27824083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JakeTheSnake5347/pseuds/JakeTheSnake5347
Summary: Josh and Sam are my two favorite characters. The former because of his complexity, and I honestly relate with him the most out of all eight protagonists; we're both mentally ill and we've both lost a younger sibling. The latter because she's not only pretty, her heart is as gold as her hair. This story basically mainly focuses on their chemistry and the results from it, but there will be other subplots too.If you all like my story enough, then I will definitely continue and eventually finish it.That is all. Enjoy!
Relationships: Sam Giddings/Josh Washington
Kudos: 14





	1. Doing Plans

**_(November 26th of 2014, 05:31 P.M. Washingtons’ Residence in Los Angeles, California.)_ **

Up in his bedroom, Josh Washington was alone. He was trying to call his therapist, Alan Hill, on the phone. 

He didn’t answer, so Josh decided to leave him a message.

_“Hey Alan! I just wanted to call and let you know how I’ve been doing lately.”_

He started off by small-talking about the holiday.

_“Umm...well first of all, I hope you have a good Thanksgiving. The same can’t be said for me, unfortunately. This is the first time I’ll have to spend an important holiday without my sisters…or my parents.”_

What exactly happened with Josh’s parents, you ask? Well, he explains it:

_“You know my dad Bob’s always stuck in Hollywood making some movies. And you probably saw this on the news the day it happened, but my mom...she spent about two weeks in jail for D.U.I. No one was killed, but she’s in rehab now.”_

There was a short pause, and then Josh began to talk about his medication.

_“Second...those pills you gave me? They’re not really working. I’m still having the nightmares. It actually feels like I’m sleepwalking sometimes.”_

He took another pause, scoffing under his breath. 

_“Maybe I’m just better off not sleeping at all. I know you said things will get better, and I’m sure they will. But, I just feel so…alone. I don’t feel like I really matter. My sisters are still missing…probably dead, my parents are always somewhere else, and my ‘friends’ either are busy or practically forgot that I even exist.”_

There was another small pause.

 _“I still can’t believe they did that! I welcomed them into my home, gave them an endless supply of booze, activities, freedom…and that’s how they repay me; by killing my sisters?”_ As anyone who lost a family member to a deadly prank would, Josh escorts the blame onto the pranksters rather than the victims. _“Fuck Mike, and fuck Emily. I don’t give a rat’s ass about Hannah’s crush on him; that’s no excuse for destroying my family or violating sacred hospitality!”_

Josh's message suddenly went from welcoming, to serious, to calm and composed but still pretty emotional.

_“Well, guess what? It’s almost the one-year anniversary…and I’m gonna get those scumbags back WAY worse than they got my sisters. Or perhaps not, depending on your viewpoint.”_

Then he got specific.

_“Okay so…I took some equipment my dad used for some of his movies; fake bodies, slasher costume, gun with blank bullets, the whole shebang. I’m gonna put that stuff all around the lodge on Blackwood Mountain and make them actors in my own little horror movie I’m making…except the acting? 100% for real!!”_

Josh cackled out loud in amusement at his own plan. After a few seconds of laughter, he apologized for the dramatic speech, saying: _“Um...sorry if I’m creeping you out, doc. I just want you to know that I’m not doing this for kicks; I’m not a sadist. But I can’t keep this anger and pain bottled up inside of me; I NEED closure for what happened to my sisters. My soul feels like this…big black hole of negativity that never seems to shrink. I’m scared that if I don’t vent all that out soon…I-I don’t even know.”_

 _“I think that’s about all I really have to say for now. Have a good day.”_ Josh ended his message there and hung up. 

Afterwards, he exited his bedroom and went downstairs to watch The Green Mile, which is his favorite movie of all time.

**_(2 minutes later…)_ **

As Josh sat down on the living room couch about to turn on his movie, with an entire 1-liter of Dr. Pepper and a big bowl of cheddar nachos, the doorbell suddenly rang. He walked over to and opened the front door. It was Sam, much to his surprise. 

_“Sam! Uhh…hi, w-what are you doing here?”_

_“I didn’t want my best friend’s brother to be lonely for a whole holiday, so I thought I’d come on over and give him some company myself.”_

_“Oh…well, thanks. I won’t let your little trip be for nothing.”_ , he said with sincere gratitude as he let her in. 

They both headed into the living room. 

_“I got some nachos and soda if you’re hungry or thirsty. I’m about to turn on a movie.”_ , Josh said.

_“Oh cool, what movie?”_

_“The Green Mile, the live-action adaptation for Stephen King’s book of the same name. About 99% of it is one big flashback for an old man who used to be a prison guard on death row. His past self is played by Tom Hanks, a.k.a. Sheriff Woody in the Toy Story trilogy.”_

_“Hmm, sounds promising. I haven’t seen that one, but I have seen Shawshank Redemption which had the same director. Awesome film by the way.”_ , she said before requesting permission to excuse herself: _“Can I use the bathroom real quick before we watch first?”_

_“Sure. Go in the kitchen and past the fridge, it’s the first door on the left-hand side.”_

Sam thanked Josh for the directions and followed them.

When Sam finally got to the bathroom door, she went in, shut and locked the door, pulling out her cellphone to call her mother. 

There was an answer.

_“Hey mom, I’m at Josh’s now. What time tomorrow should I come and get the food?”_

_“Everything should be done by noon. Give it a couple hours for it all to cool down and come at two in the afternoon."_

Sam's true intentions for coming over started to become clearer.

_“You know, I think it’s really sweet that you’d do something like this for a friend.”_

_“Someone’s gotta do it. All his other loved ones are busy or missing.”_

Yep. Sam's gonna surprise Josh with a Thanksgiving dinner that his own respective family can’t even give him. Why? Because she cares and worries about him a lot, and she doesn't want him to be upset throughout the entire year.

_“We’re about to watch a movie, and I locked myself in the bathroom so I wouldn’t give the surprise away. I gotta go or he’ll get suspicious!”_

_“Alright, I’ll let you go. Love you, Sam.”_

_“I love you too. Bye mom.”_

The phone call ended, and Sam headed back into the living room to watch The Green Mile with Josh.


	2. Movie Night Gone Wrong

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: this chapter contains major spoilers for the Green Mile movie. So, unless you've already seen it or you just don't care (which you really should because it's a literal masterpiece of filmmaking), go watch it right now and then come back when you're done.

**_(About three hours later from the previous chapter...)_ **

The movie was over. The credits were rolling.

 _“So what’d you think?”_ , Josh asked Sam.

_“A lot of things. Like, that was…that was a GREAT MOVIE! Sad as hell but very well written and acted.”_

_“I’m glad you liked it...”_

Josh noticed a small tear running down Sam’s face.

_“Are you okay?”_

_“Yeah, John’s death scene just kinda…fucked me up.”_ , Sam said chuckling and sniffling as she wiped the tear off. 

_“I know, right? It sucks even more when you realize that his actor, Michael Clarke Duncan, died two years ago from a heart attack.”_

_“Really? That’s sad. He did a fantastic job as John. He was honestly my favorite character in the movie. Him or Wild Bill.”_

_“Yeah, Wild Bill was great. He’s like a 1930’s Joker without makeup.”_

_“Except the Joker never raped and killed two little girls.”_

_“That is true. Wild Bill was also never caught for that crime; he let John Coffey, practically Jesus on Earth, take the fall for it. He’s objectively the most evil character in the story because of it. But I wouldn’t exactly call him the most hateable; that honor goes to Percy. Not only is he a sadist and an arrogant coward, his real-life actor - Doug Hutchison - is an ephebophile. He married a 16-year-old...when he was 51! So he’s a scumbag in this movie, and he’s a scumbag in real life.”_

_“Oh wow, I didn’t know that. Yeah, that guy sucked. I’m sure Del was on death row for a reason, but it still wasn’t right to stomp his pet mouse or sabotage his execution. And Wild Bill was evil, but he was at least funny. Don’t lie to me, you laughed your ass off the first time you saw this movie and he did that spit with the moon pie!”_

_“I did. It was even funnier when it cut to him in a straightjacket, being dragged into the padded room screaming 'No!'”_

Sam and Josh yelled no at the same time and laughed together. They really enjoyed being in each other’s company.

After a few seconds of laughter, Josh suddenly felt the need to get something off his chest.

_“Sam, can I…can I tell you something?”_

_“Uhh…yeah, sure. What is it?”_

Josh spoke in a shy, sincere tone with momentary pauses as he let out these words. _“Ever since what happened to Hannah and Beth, I’ve been kinda…shitty. I attempted suicide, my sleep schedule’s fucked up, and my friends are pretty distant. But whenever I’d come talk to you, or the other way around…it’s, like, the only time all year that I’m ever really...comfortable. And even despite all that crap I just mentioned…you’ve never, ever given up on me. And for that, I will always be grateful. I’m probably overreacting a little bit, but…sometimes I feel like you’re the only who understands me.”_

His words touched Sam, despite her efforts to hide it. 

_“Josh, I…”_

Before Sam could finish what she was trying to say, her cellphone rang in her pocket. She pulled it out and answered the incoming call.

It was Emily, exclaiming anxiously. _“Sam! Oh thank god you’re okay, where the hell are you?!”_

_“I’m at Josh’s house; we just finished watching a movie. What’s wrong?”_

Absolutely nothing at all could’ve prepared Sam for what Emily said next.

_“Mike was driving me and Chris home from Best Buy, and we saw a fire through the windows as we drove by your place! No bullshit, your house is actually going up in flames!!”_

_“WHAT?!! When did this happen?! Is my mom okay?”_

_“I-I don’t know! I called as soon as I noticed the flames; Chris called 911. I haven’t seen anyone come out since!”_

_“O-Okay, I’ll be right there!”_

Sam hung up and immediately stood up from the couch. 

_“What happened, what’s wrong?!”_ , Josh asked in a worried tone.

_“That was Em. She told me my house was on fire; I gotta get over there and make sure my mom got out!”_

Josh got up from the couch as well, saying: _“I’ll drive. These news clearly hit you emotionally like a brick wall; I don’t want you to get so anxious to the point where you’ll lose too much focus and accidentally crash.”_

They both rushed outside to her car. 

**_(About 20 minutes later from that…)_ **

Sam and Josh finally arrived at the former’s house. The fire coming from within was so large that you could clearly see a ton of smoke, even despite it being nighttime. The premises were surrounded by fire trucks, doing their damnedest to put out the flames with hoses.

The pair exited the car, completely shocked. Mike, Chris and Emily were standing outside the house with their backs to them. Sam ran towards the trio, yelling out 'GUYS!'

The three turned around to notice her and Josh, glad to see that she was at least safe. Sam was incredibly worried for her mother’s sake.

_“Where’s my mother? Did any of you see her get out?!”_

_“N-No, we don’t know!”_ , Chris said.

 _“No one’s been in or out of the house since we noticed the flames, we called the fire department as soon as we possibly could!”_ , Mike said.

A fireman approached Sam. _“Ma’am, you’ll have to move your car.”_

_“That’s my house, my mom’s in there!!”_

Sam tried to run past the fireman in an attempt to rescue her mother, but he halted her by grabbing her by the arms. _“I’m sorry, no one can go in there.”_

The gang continued to look on in utter devastation at the conflagrating house.

 _“My god, look at all the smoke…”_ , Chris exclaimed.

Sam was in brief denial. _"You know what? Maybe she went out to get more groceries and she just accidentally left the oven on. Yeah...yeah, she's probably fine!"_

The flames finally got so bad over time that the roof caved in, causing the entire structure to collapse.

Sam snapped out of her denial and tried to run yet again, still to no avail as the fireman held her back while she loudly and repeatedly exclaimed 'no' and 'let me go'. Josh ran over and helped the fireman hold her back so she wouldn't get herself hurt and/or killed.

_"MOMMY!!!"_

As she screamed that word at the top of her lungs, she finally got too tired to keep struggling and then fell to her knees, sobbing in complete anguish. Josh hugged Sam in an attempt to comfort her as the firemen kept trying to put out the flames.


	3. Tragedy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: this chapter has dialogue with characters calling God malicious. My intention is not, I repeat NOT to directly insult religion, but rather to show how far someone's viewpoint could fall due to a huge tragedy. I am not radical. Hell, I myself was born into a Christian family. I mean this all in the sincerest and least offensive way possible; believe in anything you want.

**_(November 27th of 2014, 2:22 P.M. Washingtons’ Residence in Los Angeles, California.)_ **

It was the next day, late in the afternoon. 

Sam hadn’t slept all night. How could she? Her mother, the woman responsible for her mere existence, had just died a horrible death. Josh stayed up as well so she didn’t feel like she had absolutely nobody to comfort her at all. 

They were watching the news, with the incident being recapped by a reporter named Andrea Wayne: _“Last night, a tragic house fire broke out in Maria Giddings’ home, where her charred corpse was found in the living room. From what evidence was left for the authorities to uncover in the rubble, it seems as if Ms. Giddings was cooking a big Thanksgiving feast for not only herself and her daughter, but also her daughter’s friend Joshua Washington, the only son of famous movie director Bob Washington. She fell asleep on the living room couch, and although she kept her cellphone nearby after setting an alarm, unfortunately the phone ran out of batteries and thus she had nothing to wake her up. She succumbed to smoke inhalation before the flames could ever reach her. Back to y--”_

Josh used the remote to turn off the TV. Sam started to cry again as he held her in a warm embrace. 

_“I’m so sorry this happened to you, Sam. First my sisters, and now your mother…I-I don’t even really know what to say. It’s just horrible.”_

_“It’s my own damn fault.”_ , Sam said while failing miserably to get past the tears.

Josh was both surprised and curious by that comment. _"What? What do you mean?”_

 _“If I was there, I could’ve prevented the fire or helped her get out.”_ She let herself out from Josh’s hug. _“Instead, my dumb ass basically just left her for dead with nobody there to save her. I'm a horrible daughter; it’s all my fault!”_

What Sam said somewhat upset Josh. So, in a brutally honest manner, he said: _“No offense, and I’m probably in no position to speak since I’m the reason you were here last night at all, but that’s bullshit. You can’t blame yourself for something you couldn’t have possibly predicted. Your mom’s death was an unfortunate accident and nothing else.”_

Josh gently tilted Sam’s chin up with his hand. 

_“All I’m saying is it wasn’t your fault. D’ya understand?”_

Sam got the message, still sniffling but now crying a little bit less as she hugged Josh again. _“I miss her, Josh. I miss her so much."_

Her tears were falling and soaking onto his clothes, but he didn't seem to mind much as she really felt the need to vent. 

_"I’m so sad that I just need someone to blame for what happened. A-And I just don’t know who.”_

_“I do; God.”_

Josh caught Sam’s curiosity. She let herself out from the hug yet again. _"What do you mean?"_

_“Do you read the bible?”_

Sam shook her head yes, although she personally was agnostic.

_“There’s this interesting story about an undyingly faithful man named Job. He had everything; family, friends, huge farm, longevity. Then one day, the devil went to see God in heaven and boasted that the only reason he was religious was because of how wealthy he was. God gave Satan permission to take everything away from him without taking his life in the process in an attempt to prove him wrong…and that’s exactly what happened. And yet Job was still a believer.”_

A small pause went throughout the room before Josh finally fully explained the point he was trying to make.

_“You know why I think God is allowing all this evil in the world and thus all the innocent people and our loved ones like my sisters, your mom, et cetera, keep suffering cruel and unusual deaths before they even reach their time? God is testing humanity and trying to see if Job wasn’t just a one-time thing. Well, you know what I say? Fuck. That.”_

Josh angrily stood up to finish his speech.

_“I mean…I mean, damn Sam! If God is all-powerful yet so petty that he’s gonna deliberately allow good people to suffer just to prove a point, and none of the bad ones do, then you know what?! Maybe He should be in Hell too!!”_

Sam thought Josh wasn’t wrong. In fact, she agreed with him 100%.

He sat back down to relax, sighing. There was another pause, then more talking. 

_“My mom was the only family I had left after my dad walked out on me when I was two. So I’m pretty much alone.”_ , Sam said.

_“No, you’re not. You’ve still got friends who care about you, myself being one of them. You’re free to stay here until you get back on your feet.”_

Sam hugged Josh a third time when he said that. _“Thank you, Josh. Thank you so much.”_

Josh eventually got back up to go get some refreshments. 

_“I’m gonna go in the kitchen and get myself a drink. Want me to get you anything while I’m in there?”_

_“Do you have any margarita?”_ , Sam asked.


	4. Solace

**_(About an hour later from the previous chapter...)_ **

Josh and Sam were both sitting on the couch and drinking margarita together straight out of their respective bottle; laughing out loud, talking complete nonsense, and feeling a bit tingly. They were definitely getting wasted.

Sam was recalling the lovely story about a prank she did in middle school.

_“Okay, so…I’m about two months into the 7th grade, right? My math teacher, whose name I can’t remember for the life of me, was the single laziest sack of crap I’d ever known in my entire life! He would always just give us worksheets without actually teaching the class, and he gave the troublesome students freedom to whatever the hell they wanted. One day, a female student was being sexually harassed by some dude, and the teacher? DIDN’T DO SHIT! Another male stepped in and got his own ass kicked just so the other guy would leave the girl alone.”_

_“Wow. Your teacher must’ve been a real shitbird!”_

_“Ho-oh, you have no idea. So one day before class started, I decided to use his school computer and go on a buncha porn sites. Except I didn’t actually watch any of it; my plan was to just leave the links in his search history. The school checked the staff’s computers often, so I thought they’d see ‘em and he’d get fired. Come the next day? Turns out that’s exactly what happened!!”_

They both drunkenly laughed out loud at her story. Sam suddenly started hiccupping, so she took a sip out of her drink big enough to finish it.

_“Sam…I think you said something about a girl getting molested in class. That girl wouldn’t happen to be Ashley, would it?”_

_“Noooo…”_ She chuckled when and after she said no, making it pretty obvious that she was lying.

_“Yeeeesss! It’s how she and Chris met, remember? He was the one who got a black eye defending her, and he had to go home early. Lucky bastard!”_

Sam momentarily paused and looked down with a wait-what face, and then resumed laughing as she realized that Josh was correct. _“Oh yeah!”_

At this point, Sam was so intoxicated that she was way too frivolous to feel quite as sad as she was before. In fact, she was actually feeling a little bit…

_“Hey Josh? Can you do me *hic* just one eensy-weensy favor?”_

_“Sammy…how eensy-weensy are we talking?”_

_“I want you to fuck me until someone passes out.”_

…licentious. She purposely placed her hand on his crotch as she said that just to let him know that she was being dead serious, even despite her drunken state. 

Samantha deeply cared for all three of the Washington siblings, but the truth was she always had a peculiar crush on Joshua; he was funny, cute, and an interesting person to say the least. But she always tried to put her lustful desires aside and just remain friends, mainly because he was her own best friend’s brother and thus she didn’t wanna come off as some whore or homewrecker.

But at that current moment, she was way too drunk to give a damn. 

_"Uuuuhhh..."_ , Josh exclaimed in drunken confusion combined with a little bit of surprise.

Sam started finger-walking all the way up to Josh's nape as she said: _“I wanna play seven...hours, in Heaven. With you. Because...I know I never told you this, but...I LIKE you. Don't you like me back? Don't you want a break from reality? Don't you wanna just...have fun?”_

She was practically begging him to have rough sex with her. She'd been through so much tough shit throughout the past year that she finally caved as she just wanted...no wait, scratch that. NEEDED something to make her feel good.

Josh just gladly accepted it as Sam kissed him on the lips and stuck her tongue in his mouth before putting her left hand around his neck with the right one on his chest, while he placed his own hands on her waist.

She assisted him in taking off her own shirt. He then started sucking on her neck and shoulder, placing his left hand on her butt and shoving the right one up her shirt in order to unhook her bra. Then, he raised both of his arms all the way up in the air as she took off his shirt.

They continued kissing and undressing.

**_(Half an hour later from that…)_ **

The pair eventually ended up in Josh's bedroom, completely naked. 

He laid on the bed face-up and placed his hands on Sam’s hips as she rode his penis like a cowgirl on a bull. It was all so orgasmic that neither of them could stop moaning. 

They’d been at it for so long now that they were actually sweating.

Sam eventually lost her stamina and fell forwards, her bare breasts landing right on Josh’s face. 

She got off to lay down on the bed alongside him, both of them on their sides as he pressed his front against her back. Putting his right arm underneath her pillow so her head would be more comfortable and so he wouldn’t feel cramped, he used his left hand to feel all around her lower torso and firmly locate her vagina. 

Once he did, he entered her from the rear and thrusted his pelvis repeatedly for a good two minutes, causing her to yell orgasmic moans throughout the whole thing until she finally passed out from an overload of exhaustion combined with pleasure.

He finally came. Inside her.

When the sex was thus finally over, Josh pulled out and realized that Sam was unconscious. He took his blanket to cover themselves up, laying down face-up to say...

_“Wow.”_

…before falling asleep for a nap as well.


	5. Surprise!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the end of the first segment. Yes it's a bit short and ends on a cliffhanger but if you want more, give me a dozen kudos and some good comments, and I will definitely continue! Thanks for reading!

**_(January 29th of 2015, 01:44 A.M. Hotel in Alberta, Canada.)_ **

The eight main friends had all taken a plane from California all the way to Canada. They were celebrating the one-year anniversary of Hannah and Beth’s disappearance, planned by Josh to honor them.

Sam was sitting on a bed in her own designated hotel room, tapping her feet. She’d recently been getting stomach-aches, and no amount of ginger ale would make it totally go away. That could only mean one thing: either she’s pregnant, or she’s having a stomach bug.

Before going to any sort of doctor, Sam asked Chris to go to the store and pick up a pregnancy test. She couldn’t go herself because she wanted to avoid suspicion from Josh, who went to the store with Chris in a taxi to get some refreshments for the upcoming party. She thought that if Chris was buying the test, Josh would just assume it was for Ashley after he finally tells her that he loves her and then they take another vacation to the ‘bone zone’.

There was a knock on her door. She walked over and answered.

It was Chris, back from the store. _“Did you get it?”_ , Sam asked.

He gave her a small box containing the test. _"Hey…the sex was consensual on both ends, right?”_

_“Uuuuh…yeah, why?”_

_“There's a ton of rapist assholes out there in the world, and some use drugs to keep their victims immobile while they...well, you know.”_

_“Yeah, good point. But I promise you he didn’t rape me. We were both drunk, and hell I was the one who started the act.”_

_“Okay. Good, I-I believe you.”_ Before heading back to his own room, Chris said: _“And hey. If the test turns out positive…I promise not to tell Josh, okay? That’s you two’s business, not mine.”_

 _“Thanks Chris.”_

Chris walked away as she closed the door.

Sam then went to the bathroom, took off her pants, and peed into a plastic cup. 

Sitting on the covered toilet, Sam opened the box, took the cap off the stick, dipped the stick into the cup of urine, put on a new cap, and placed the stick flat on the sink.

After two minutes of waiting, she picked the test back up to look at the results. 

_“Oh my God…!”_

There was a plus sign. Sam was in utter shock and devastation, crying.


	6. Life’s Not Fair

**_(February 2nd of 2015, 03:41 A.M. Washington Lodge Grounds.)_ **

Chris and Mike were dragging a tied-up Josh, who had just unmasked and revealed himself as the psycho terrorizing his friends, to the shed. He had pulled a Sam-Pepper-esque stunt, faking his own death, scaring everyone else in the process of that and even more traumatizing shit, and recording it all to post online after trying to make it come off as some prank or game. But the truth? It wasn't socially acceptable at all.

 _“Why’d you hit her, man? Huh? Why’d you have to fucking hit her!?”_ , Chris yelled out as he punched Josh in the face, knocking him to the ground on his knees. _“You punched Ashley, you piece of shit!”_

At first, Josh couldn’t understand what Chris was talking about. Until he did: _“I got so mad.”_

_“You don’t hit a girl. Y-You just don’t.”_

_“Dude, dude Chris, bro I-”_

_“And I’m not your ‘bro’!”_

Mike was angered under the assumption that the clearly insane 20-year-old killed his girlfriend Jessica. Josh kept saying that he didn’t do it, but only Chris seemed the least bit skeptical. Mike also was fairly abusive to Josh on the way over to the shed, pushing him to the ground and pulling on his arm muscles, which Chris didn’t like one bit even despite what the latter had just put him through.

They finally arrived at the shed. Mike forcefully sat Josh down on a stool near a pole, telling him to stay still as he and Chris were tying him to said pole. 

Josh wouldn’t permit and started wiggling, saying: _“Right right, still. Can’t tie ‘em up if they just wiggle around. Leave me a little wiggle room, huh?”_ Chris and Mike were getting more annoyed while Josh was crazily exclaiming about hostage situations. 

Mike asked Chris what in God’s name he was talking about. Chris found it hard to watch; he’s never seen him like this before.

Then Josh started taunting them: _“Oh, an-and Chris? Man, you can forget about ever getting into Ashley’s little panties after that little cock-up with the whole ‘I’m gonna shoot you in the head’ thing. She’s better off with Mike over here anyways, at least he knows how to treat a lady.”_

 _“Goddammit.”_ Chris grabbed a wooden board and lifted it up, preparing to hit Josh.

_“Hint: It’s not shoot her in the face.”_

_“I’m gonna beat his head off!”_

_“Don’t listen to him. Not worth it.”_ , Mike told Chris.

Josh then said Mike’s name numerous times like a camel in a GEICO commercial. _“Hey Mike? Mike, Mike, Mike Mike Mike. Mike!”_

He finally responded. _“What?”_

_“What happened with Jess, Mike?”_

_“You know what happened.”_

_“No. No, I…I don’t. I got a problem, Mike. I don’t remember killing Jess. I mean, like, I feel like I-I would remember killing her, you know? She’s…so soft, and she’s probably got like a really tight bod.”_

Mike pointed a pistol at Josh’s face in an attempt to scare him. _“SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH!!”_

Chris hit the gun out of Mike’s hands with the board, disarming him.

 _“Seriously? Did you think I was gonna shoot him? Come. On. Chris, you know me better than that.”_ , Mike said as he picked the gun back up.

 _“Yeah Chris, you know me better than that!”_ , Josh exclaimed. _“Oh your poor little piggies, can’t even get their good cop/bad cop routine to work. Leave it to the pros, bros!”_

 _“Why don’t you go back to the lodge, make sure everything’s alright.”_ , Mike told Chris. _“I’ll stay here with this lunatic until morning.”_

That idea seemed to excite Josh. _“Oooh, sleepover! C-Can we order pizza?”_

 _“You sure you’re okay?”_ , Chris asked Mike.

_“Yeah. They’ll wanna know everything’s fine back there.”_

_“You’re right. See you in the morning.”_ , Chris said as he dropped the wooden board and left the shed on his way back to the lodge.

Josh suddenly began to speak slightly lucid, but was still very much sick. _“I bet you love seeing me in this much pain, Munroe.”_

_“You’re right, I do. You deserve this.”_

Josh scoffed in disdain, saying: _“When you die, I really hope you go to Hell. Not because I hate you - I do, don’t get me wrong - but because that way, you and your dumb blonde whore can be with and fuck each other for the rest of eternity.”_

Once again, Mike raised his gun and pointed it at Josh’s head for intimidation purposes. _“Chris ain’t here to stop me this time; keep on testing me and see what ha-”_

_“FUCK YOU MIKE!!! I don’t know how many times I have to say I’m sorry for what happened, nor do I know what to do to make up for it. But stop treating me like this, and for that matter stop pretending you’re the only one going through shit. In fact, you know what? You should be grateful!”_

_“Grateful for what!? The fact that I had to watch my girlfriend get brutally murdered, and now I’m never gonna see, talk to, or do stuff with her again?”_

_“At least you obtained some form of closure.”_ Josh started to cry as he let out these words: _“My two little sisters just vanished without a trace after you guys broke Hannah’s heart. All the fun I used to have with them - going to the beach, parties, holidays - is no more. You don’t even care that it’s your fault! And my parents never even found their bodies; we had to say goodbye to empty graves! Do you get that? Your girlfriend’s dead, but at least you had her to lose. I don’t even remember the last time I told them that I loved them. They could be alive or dead or dying or worse and I don’t even fucking know!! So SHUT! THE FUCK! UP!!!”_ He capped all that off by basically daring Mike to kill him: _“You know what? Go ahead and shoot me; I have literally nothing to live for anymore.”_

Josh’s dramatic speech touched Mike; the sadness in his eyes were visible. He wanted to be angry but at the same time he just couldn’t feel anything but pity for him anymore. The truth is he always felt somewhat remorseful not only for what he did to Hannah, but also the consequences of it; them being Beth’s disappearance and Josh’s sanity slippage. He was just way too smug to come out about his insecurities.

At that point, Mike finally realized how much of an insensitive hypocrite he was being and lowered his gun. _“Oh Josh, I’m-”_

Before he could finish his apology, Mike heard a girl’s voice behind him. _“Mike?”_

He turned around to see that it was Sam. _“Sam, w-what are you doing here?”_

_“Mike, can you give me and Josh some privacy? We have something we seriously need to talk about…alone.”_

_“You sure? Last time you two were alone together, he chased you underground and tried to knock you out.”_

_“I admit that was both scary and uncool. But…this is seriously important. Plus he’s sick, not evil.”_

Suddenly, a different girl’s scream was heard in the background.

 _“Crap, what now? I’ll be right back, don’t go anywhere.”_ Mike ran back to the lodge to make sure everyone else was okay while Sam stayed behind to watch Josh, leaving the pair alone for their talk. 

Sam anxiously entered the shed and approached the incapacitated Josh.

 _“So, Sammy-G…what can I do for a fine lady like you on this…not-so-fine evening?”_ , Josh said with a Southern gentleman accent.

_“I have to tell you something. You’re…you’re not the only one keeping secrets.”_

_“What are you talking about?”_

Sam struggled to let out the words. How couldn’t she? She was pregnant, and he was the father! She didn’t tell him before because she felt that it was only right to wait until after the weekend celebration was over; it would be the ultimate party pooper if she just told him right away.

But since it was all revealed to be an orchestrated prank, she figured: ‘Why not now?’  


_“Okay, so…I just wanna let you know beforehand that none of what I’m about to say is a lie. So no laughing! And I can’t make any guarantees, but these news probably won’t hit you nearly as hard as they did me.”_

_“Okay…? Go on.”_

Before finally revealing the news, Sam took a deep breath in and out. Then…

_“Remember the day after my mom died, we got drunk and had a one-night stand?”_

_“How could I possibly forget? That was the only real fun I had all year.”_

_“Likewise, honestly. But that’s not the point.”_

Josh had a confused look on his face. Absolutely nothing could’ve prepared him for what Sam said next.

 _“Josh, I just found out I’m pregnant.”_ Dun, dun, DUN!

He sincerely wished that Sam was just joking. But he knew that she wasn’t; it was like that was the moment when Josh’s entire world turned completely upside-down after a yearlong trauma conga line.

 _“This is…I-I don’t even know what to say right now. I really don’t.”_ , Josh said in a sincere tone. _“W-Why didn’t you tell me this before?”_

_“I couldn’t. I’m sorry.”_

_“So you’re telling me…that I’m gonna be a father, and I can’t even provide for my own child because Daddy’s going to jail?”_

Before Sam could answer that question, a monstrous screech was suddenly heard outside nearby, startling the pair.

Then, only a few seconds later, there were creepy thudding noises heard from the shed’s rooftop.

 _“What the fuck is that?”_ , Josh whispered.

Sam quickly went to grab the same wooden board Chris previously used to arm herself. But by then, it was too late; a pale, bald, and slender creature with sharp claws and teeth suddenly leapt down from the roof right in front of her, making her scream.

As she still tried to pick up the board, the creature leapt towards her and Josh.


	7. From Bad to Nightmare

Emily was frantically running after having just escaped a mineshaft. A mysterious old man with a flamethrower had saved her life from an equally mysterious creature, a few minutes after which she received a bite wound on her right shoulder.

She eventually reached the lodge door and was pounding on it, begging to be let inside.

Chris and Ashley rushed to the door, opening it as she fell inside and then immediately yelled at the pair to shut it back, which they did. Ashley dragged Emily inside and helped her up, and the trio made their way to the great room.

All three were talking at once trying to find out what was going on, until Chris ordered everyone to pause so only one person could be heard at a time. He then asked if Em was okay, to which she responded: _“I’m fine, I don’t feel anything, I just need to calm down, it was moving so damn fast. I just had to get away. Th-there was this thing, whatever it was-”_

 _“Em, everything’s okay now. Josh was messing with us, and now he’s tied up in the shed.”_ , Ashley said trying to reassure her.

_“You’re not listening to me.”_

Then he asked about her boyfriend’s well-being as well: _“Wait Em, where’s Matt? Is he okay?”_

_“Matt, oh God. W-We couldn’t use the cable car so we climbed the tower, and then it fell and we were down in the mine, like WAY down; down in this terrifying freaking mine shaft. And then, it was Matt and me down there and…oh God I think that Matt might be dead.”_

This answer not only shocked Chris and Ash, but also caught their curiosity even more.

_“I-I was walking down there in the mines, a-and it was dark and I found this…pile, and…there was Beth’s head.”_

_“Wait what?!”_ , Chris exclaimed in confusion.

_“Beth’s head, I found it.”_

Chris and Ash were absolutely baffled yet disturbed at the same time.

_“I think they fell down there. But the worst part is I don’t think Hannah died, like…from the fall, not right away.”_

_“Wait, wh-what do you mean?”_ , Ashley asked.

_“I don’t know, I feel like she was down there, like, starving to death for weeks. When we were all up here looking for her, we had no idea!”_

_“Jesus, that’s…horrible.”_

_“But listen. In the radio tower, there was a radio and I-I got through to someone but then that was right when the tower collapsed.”_

Mike suddenly came running into the great room. He was grateful to see that Emily was okay and even hugged her, but was still a bit concerned for Matt’s sake. Chris and Ash tried to tell him the exact same story she told them about the monster chasing her, but Mike brushed it off as her being ‘messed up’.

Then a random knock was heard from the lodge’s back door. Who the fuck could that be; Josh, Sam, or Matt? Mike could confirm for certain that it wasn’t Jessica because he watched her die. He cautiously went over to investigate, with a revolver in one hand and Chris right behind him. The latter asked for the gun since the former was stronger; he agreed and gladly handed it over.

 _“Don’t shoot yourself in the foot.”_ , Mike said.

_“Funny. You should get your own show.”_

With a gun in one hand and the other on the doorknob, Chris started to slowly open the door, but that was when that same mysterious flamethrower-wielding man from before kicked the door open, knocking him down to the ground. Before Chris could even have enough time to shoot, the stranger yanked the gun off of him and threw it on the ground.

 _“Okay, everybody just calm down.”_ , the stranger said. 

He then ordered the pair to go back into the great room with Emily and Ashley so that he could say what he came to say. _“I’m here to tell you what you’re up against bein’ back on this mountain. You should never have returned; I don’t know why you did after what happened last year.”_

He dropped a bag near the fireplace. _“You mean with Hannah and Beth?”_ , Ashley asked. 

_“Yeah, how could you know without being involved…or responsible?” _, Chris asked.__

The accusations thrown at the stranger offended him: _“You hold onto your horses. I don’t take kindly to you kids comin’ up here to my mountain…”_

_“Your mountain?”_ , Mike asked. _“I’m sure the Washingtons would be very surprised to hear that.”_

The flamethrower man chuckled at that response. _“Well, the mountain don’t belong to me, it’s true. But it don’t belong to the Washingtons; this mountain belongs to the Wendigo.”_

The quartet literally had no idea what the stranger was talking about at all. They decided to hear him out; it's not like they had any other choice. 

_“Now I’m only gonna tell you this once. It doesn’t matter to me if you believe it or not. I got reasons I wanna…get it off my chest. There is a curse that dwells in these mountains: should any man or woman resort to cannibalism in these woods, the spirit of the Wendigo shall be unleashed.”_

_“Oh crap.”_ Mike was suddenly having flashbacks to Jess being dragged from a window, shooting an unknown figure in the head, and flicking a lighter to reveal strange eyes peering through wooden planks. He now knew for certain that Josh didn’t kill Jess, or anyone for that matter. 

_“You’re gonna need to find somewhere safe.”_ , the stranger pointed out. 

_“The basement’s spooky as hell, but…it’s secure at least.”_ , Ashley pointed out. 

_“Okay, get down there, now, all of you, and wait.”_ , the stranger ordered the group.

 _“For how long?”_ , Chris asked.

_“Until dawn.”_ , Emily said. To quote CinemaSins: Roll credits! *ding* 

Mike also remembered that Josh and Sam were both still outside, potentially in harm's way with this recently-discovered monster. _“Guys? I ran off and left Josh with Sam when I heard screaming.”_

_“Where did you leave ‘em?”_ , the stranger asked. 

_“In the shed.”_

_“Ahhh…your friends will already be dead.”_

_“No. No, they can’t be. We were just with them!”_ , Chris said. 

_“A lot can happen quickly on this mountain.”_

_“No.”_ Chris was extremely worried for both of his friends, but Sam moreso because he knew about her condition. _”I’m gonna go get ‘em.”_

_“You can’t go out there, Chris!”_ , Ashley complained. 

_“I have to! I’ll be damned if I just sit back and let my two friends die, especially when one of them is… is…”_

_“Is what?”_ , Mike asked. 

Chris sighed and looked down. He remembered promising Sam that he wouldn’t tell since it wasn’t his business, but he deemed it way too important to be kept secret anymore after all the insane bullshit going on on the mountain. _“Pregnant.”_

His friends either gasped, raised their eyes, or said ‘oh my god’ in astonishment at the revelation. _“Sam’s pregnant!?”_ , Emily asked. 

_“Yes, and Josh is the father.”_

_“H-How do you know?”_ , Mike asked. 

_“Sam told me. They got drunk and had a one-night stand after her mom died. A couple nights ago, she asked me to go to the store and buy a pregnancy test for her. I delivered, she texted me the next morning and said it was positive.”_

_“Well, why didn’t you tell us this before?!”_

_“I wanted to wait until after she told Josh. I didn’t wanna risk any of you telling him yourselves. And it wasn’t even any of my business; I was just helping out a friend.”_

_“It’s still dangerous. And you don’t owe Josh anything.”_ , Ashley pointed out. 

_“I don’t care. I’m going to get ‘em both back.”_

The stranger agreed to help Chris: _“Then, I’ll go with you.”_

_“I don’t need your help.”_

_“Going alone is suicide.”_

Chris reluctantly agreed to let the stranger help him; everyone else went down to the basement for shelter. The stranger told Chris to follow him and do everything he told him before the duo turned and walked towards the kitchen, leading to a hallway containing a side exit of the lodge. 

The stranger gave Chris a shotgun. _“This is the end you point towards the thing you wanna kill.”_

_“I know how to use a shotgun, man.”_

_“No you don’t.”_

_“What? How do you know?”_

_“Trust me, I know.”_

Ashley suddenly appeared behind Chris, coldly staring at him without saying a word. As he and the stranger walked outside, she closed the door behind them while continuing to look on with a blank stare. What the hell was her problem? 

Chris and the stranger then set off on their journey to rescue Sam and Josh.

On the way over to the shed, the stranger gave Chris some advice about how to fight back against the Wendigo, including: a shotgun will blow it away but won’t kill it, fire is the only way you can kill it, it’s nocturnal, and its vision is based on movement.

The pair finally arrived at said shed, only to find a broken empty stool. Chris looked around, but neither Sam nor Josh could be found anywhere inside. _“They’re gone. We’re too late!”_

 _“Shh, quiet!”_ , the stranger whispered at Chris as he was starting to loudly exclaim his distress. He knew full well what dangers awaited the pair outside that shed. _“We gotta go, right now.”_

_“We at least gotta find Sam, she could still be out there!”_

_“Ha! First, the Wendigo…he’ll render you immobile. And then he strips the skin off of your entire body, piece by piece. Then? He keeps you alive, and aware, and feasts on your organs one piece at a time.”_

After listening to…that, Chris adhered more to the stranger’s advice and agreed to head back to the lodge. 

As the pair exited the shed, the stranger heard a scream in the near distance and loudly whispered at Chris to wait. As he was trying to stop, Chris accidentally made some noise by stepping on a twig, alerting the nearby monster to their presence as it came rushing towards the weapon-wielding duo’s position. As they tried to run, the Wendigo leapt in front of Chris before the stranger shot his flamethrower at it, making it leap away towards cover. _“God-damn!”_

_“We’re right out in the open. We gotta get outta here!”_ Those were the stranger’s last words before the Wendigo lunged at him from a different position and swiped its sharp-nailed hand across his neck, instantly decapitating him as his remains fell backwards into the snowy floor. 

Chris was positively horrified at the sight of the stranger’s gruesome death, but it wasn’t enough to stop him from trying to survive himself. He ran back to the lodge, turning back every few seconds to shoot the Wendigo pursuing him. At one point during the chase, he somersaulted under a fallen tree, spinned around, and blasted the monster back into the tree he’d just rolled under. Not bad for a college nerd who by his own admission should’ve paid more attention in gym…or ‘climbing class’, as he prefers to call it.

He finally reached the lodge’s rear entrance. Ashley was standing on the other side, and he was literally pounding and screaming at the top of his lungs for her to open the door. _“Ash! Ash, come on this thing is right behind me! Please, let me in!! Ash, wh-what’re y…what’re you doing?!”_

As Chris was still locked outside, Ashley suddenly had a flashback to one of Josh’s ‘tests’, when he pointed a gun at her head and then pulled the trigger while she begged. It was at that point she chose to simply not open the door and silently backed away, effectively leaving him for dead out of sheer spite. 

It seemed as if Chris was going to die from someone else’s inaction. But that was when Emily suddenly appeared behind Ashley to shove her out of the way, quickly unlock the door, and open it to let Chris inside, saving his life. Had Em been about two seconds too late, he would’ve been killed by the Wendigo leaping straight towards the door. 

When the trio was inside together, they all stood completely still as the Wendigo slowly peeked through the door, smearing the glass panes with its hot breath while snarling and looking for runners. After ten seconds of searching to no avail, it lost interest and took off, giving everyone the opportunity to catch their breaths. 

Then there was a verbal fight between Chris and Ash. _“What. The FUCK, Ashley!!? You were gonna let that thing kill me?!”_ , Chris exclaimed in anger. 

_“Well, you were gonna shoot me! How is that any different, you dip?!”_

_“O-Okay, that is totally unfair!”_

Emily stepped into the middle of their conversation, oblivious to their current issue. _“Wait, wait…Chris, what’s she talking about?”_

_“The two of us were in one of Josh’s ‘games’. We were sitting across from each other at a table, a gun in the middle and sawblades coming down on our heads. The gun was filled with blanks, but neither of us knew that at the time. I could make one of three choices: shoot myself and she lives, shoot her and I live, or do nothing and we both die.”_

_“And you can probably guess what he chose.”, Ashley sarcastically pointed out._

Emily seemed somewhat disturbed by the info that Chris tried to murder someone, his own crush nonetheless. 

_“Well first of all, I panicked and it wasn’t an easy choice to make. Second, it’s not even what I wanted to do at first. I aimed at myself and my goal was to save her like I did previously in another game, but then Ashley seemed so grateful for what I did that she directly said she wanted to take the bullet and save me in return. I was only granting her dying wish!”_

_“I meant give me the gun, not personally blow my brains out you shitlord!”_

_“Your hands were bound to the chair! How did you possibly expect to grab it at all?”_

Ashley took a few seconds to think and realize that Chris was indeed correct. And at that point, she had no response…or at least, none that wouldn’t make her appear as some kinda jackass. 

_“Okay, both of you stop right now!”_ , Emily demanded. _“My opinion on you two’s little altercation doesn’t really matter, but guess what? Right now, neither do yours. Don’t you think we all should be down in the basement where it’s actually safe, instead of waiting for the hungry motherfucker outside to come crashing in and carve into us like jack-o’-lanterns?”_

Chris inhaled through his nose and then exhaled through his mouth, counting to four in his head after each breath. _“You’re right. L-Let’s get down to the basement. We’ll settle this later when we’re finally off this shithole.”_

The trio headed down to the basement. 


	8. Rumors and Hearsay

**_(February 2nd of 2015, 04:47 A.M. Old Hotel.)_ **

Chris, Emily and Ashley joined Mike down in the basement. To say things weren’t going great would be an understatement. 

_“Good, Chris you’re still okay.”_ , Mike sighed in relief. _“D-Did you get Sam or Josh back?”_

_“No. When I got to the shed, they were both gone.”_

_“Shit…well, what about the flamethrower dude?”_

_“Dead. The thing, it…tore him apart. Right in front of me.”_

The group was both disturbed and upset to hear the bad news. Mike started walking all around the basement, desperately trying to find an exit. 

_“Mike, what are you doing?”_ , Emily asked. 

_“Looking for another way out.”_

_“Is that really a good idea? People will come for us at dawn. We have enough shelter to last us down here until then.”_

_“Oh, yeah? All wrapped up like a little present with a bow on top for that thing to tear us apart on Christmas morning? You can wait; I’m leaving.”_

_“Mike, there’s no key for the cable car.”_

_“Josh! He all but owns the mountain; he’s gotta have it…which basically means we’re shit outta luck if that fucking thing got ahold of him and Sam.”_

_“I don’t know Mike, it’s possible. It may have taken him down to the mine. I saw some horrible stuff down there; I think it’s where that thing lives, and…”_ Em spotted the bag that the stranger dropped near the fireplace in the previous chapter, which caught her eye as she emptied it. 

_“Fuck it. I’m gonna get that key, right from that thing’s goddamn bedroom, and then I’m gonna get us all the hell outta here.”_

_“You might wanna come look at this if you’re being serious.”_

Mike listened to Em; Chris got up so he could see what was up for himself as well. 

_“Is that a map?”_ , Chris asked, to which the answer was yes. It was a map of the entire mountain, including the Blackwood Mines and Sanatorium, the latter of which Mike visited in an attempt to hunt down Jessica’s assumed murderer. _“Damn, that guy musta been prepared for anything.”_

_“Not quite.”_ , Mike exclaimed in an ironic tone. _“I was down there; it was horrible.”_

_“Really? What happened?”_

_“There had been a cave-in, in the fifties I guess, and these miners got trapped down there. Some of them survived but, like, 15 of ‘em didn’t make it. There was this reporter and I think he figured out there had been some, like, big cover-up going on. I found these plans; they knew the mine was a death trap but they let the miners keep working anyway. And…I’m not sure what it means, but…I found this chair, dried blood all over the place like somebody’d been tortured.”_

_“Michael, I’d like to maybe focus on how we’re gonna get the fuck out of here please?”_ , Emily said in a deadpan yet still somewhat snarky tone. 

_“I’m just saying, it’s weird how much crazy shit’s gone on up here.”_

While Mike, Chris and Em were overlooking the map, they reviewed an underground tunnel leading directly from the lodge to the sanatorium, which is exactly how Mike got back. They also reviewed a random water wheel, which Emily saw when she was down in the mines herself. 

As the group had finally found some direction, Ashley was behind Emily and suddenly noticed a bite wound on her right shoulder. _“Em…Em, what is that? What. Is. That.”_ She started freaking out and chanting ‘no’ and ‘oh my god’ at the sight of her mysterious wound. 

_“It’s nothing, it just…it bit me and…”_

_“It bit you?! What bit you?!”_

_“The…the Wendigo. It’s nothing, really it’s not a big deal. It doesn’t hurt anymore, really it’s…it’s not that bad.”_ Despite Emily’s attempts to reassure her friends, some of them weren’t really believing her. _“I know what you’re thinking, and I’m fine.”_

_“Are you? Emily…if the Wendigo bit you, you could turn into one of those things.”_ , Mike pointed out. 

_“He said it was from eating each other, remember he said that. It happens if it bit you, you’re gonna turn into one and then you’re gonna turn on us, oh my god oh my god oh my GOD!”_ , Ashley exclaimed in superstition combined with chickenshit. 

Mike would rather be safe than sorry: _“You can’t be down here with us. You gotta go.”_

_“WHAT? Are you kidding me?!”_ , Emily exclaimed in justified anger. 

_“You’re putting us all in danger.”_

_“Like hell I am!”_

_“Emily! You can’t. Stay here.”_

Chris seemed somewhat skeptical at the idea of Emily being infected: _“Whoa whoa whoa, everyone just time out for two minutes! I probably have no say in what happens next, but I just wanna give my two cents on why I think Em should stay. A, she saved my life once and I owe her for that much at least. And B, we really could be getting worked up over nothing.”_

_“Do you really wanna take that chance?”_ , Ashley asked. 

_“Well I certainly know I don’t want someone to die over a dumbass superstition, especially if it’s someone who helped me when…others couldn’t.”_

It was two against one. Emily’s chances of survival looked pretty slim: _“What is this? Guys, what’re you doing?”_

Mike was starting to get passive-aggressive due to his paranoia: _“Door’s right here. I am letting you do this voluntarily.”_

_“Oh, no you’re just making yourself feel better about sending me to my death since you know there’s a Wendigo out there ready to rip me to pieces like it did with…”_

_“Okay, oh my god, will you just GO?! Go, get out of here!!”_ , Ashley exclaimed out of cowardice. 

It was at that point that Mike wouldn’t take it anymore. He grabbed a revolver from a nearby desk and aimed at Emily’s head, forcing her to back up into a wall as she started crying in disbelief combined with barely-concealed heartbreak. 

_“You're gonna shoot me? Mike, me?”_

_“This is the SAFE room, Em! It is not safe as long as you’re in it, not for us. I’m really sorry…”_

Before he could pull the trigger, Mike heard a ‘ch-chak’ noise to his right. 

He turned his head to see that it was Chris, aiming his newly-acquired shotgun at him and perfectly willing to make a kill if it meant saving someone else. _“I respect that you have good intentions, Mike. But I can’t let you do this.”_

_“Chris…I have to!”_

_“But what if you don’t? Haven’t we lost enough friends already?”_

Mike was feeling extremely conflicted. He didn’t want Em to turn, but at the same time he knew that there’d be no going back if he was wrong. 

Then Ashley stepped into the debate: _“Oh, yeah, sure Chris! Go ahead and risk the lives of three clean people for one dirty one when you wouldn’t even save me in a 1v1 situation, you fucking hypocrite!”_

_“Ashley? Shut the fuck up. We already decided we’d talk about it later.”_

_“What ‘later’ will there be, if we’re all dead before we even manage to get off the mountain?! Mike, shoot her! She’s a goner anyway!”_

_“Mike, if you shoot Emily, I swear to God and sonny Jesus I will shoot you back!”_

Emily was noticeably shaking in fear, scared for her life. Ashley seemed to really want her dead. Chris was doing his damnedest to protect her as Mike considered blowing out her brains with a single bullet. Tensions were especially high. 

But in the end, Mike put the gun away and spared Em’s life. _“Fuck, I can’t do this.”_ He already regretted it; he was sincerely hoping that he did the right thing, but at the same time he knew that it would be all his fault should she turn and kill everyone. _“Keep an eye on her. If you see anything weird…you guys know what to do. No one leave; I’ll be back soon.”_ Mike left his gun on a nearby desk as he left the basement to revisit the sanatorium. 

As Chris and Emily sat/laid down to take a chill pill after possibly the most intense situation all night, Ashley noticed a journal near the stranger’s bag, collecting it to read it by herself at a desk under a lamp on the opposite side of the room. The insides of said journal contained vital facts about the Wendigos and their history, such as their voices being able to mimic their prey as well as the stranger himself getting bit once and yet still not turning into one of them. 

That new info made Ashley especially nervous, as she had just tried to get Em killed. She couldn’t stop exclaiming ‘oh no’ under her breath. 

_“What? What’s the book say?”_ , Chris asked as he walked over to Ash. 

Ashley lied in an attempt to save face: _“Oh. Uh, just a lotta crazy stuff in here. It’s kinda hard to believe actually; he comes across as…kind of a whackjob.”_

Chris grabbed the book so he could see its contents for himself. 

_“Chris really, it’s nothing. Just a bunch of boring history and mumbo-jumbo crap.”_

_“Lotta effort being put into keeping me from looking at nothing, don’t ya think?”_

If it wasn't obvious enough already, Chris had a good bullshit detector, leaving Ashley speechless. He read the pages and discovered the information which she was trying to hide: Wendigo bites are non-infectious. 

_“Em? Good news! You’re not gonna turn; the bites don’t do jackshit.”_ , he exclaimed out loud. 

_“I’m sorry, what did you say?”_ , Emily exclaimed in a passive-aggressive manner. 

_“Here, read this. You only become a Wendigo if you yourself begin eating someone, not the other way around. You’re gonna be fine.”_

_“Fine? Mike almost shot me, that’s fine?!”_ Emily then started pointing fingers at Ashley: _“And THIS bitch almost let him!”_

Chris decided to stay out of…whatever feud between the two girls and just kept reading through the stranger’s journal. 

_“I-I’m sorry. I’m sorry Emily, I was scared and didn’t know what was gonna happen to you, none of us knew-”_

_“Bullshit! You’re not scared, you’re a fucking coward! First you try to feed Chris to that monster, then you try to order my execution, and you have the nerve to tell me…no wait scratch that, tell US that you didn’t know what was gonna happen?! Fuck you, Ashley!!”_

Emily turned around and walked away in visible anger. Ashley followed her in a feeble attempt to have her apology accepted. _“Please Emily, please just try to understand…”_

_“Understand the palm of my hand, bitch!”_ Em did a 180-degree turnaround and slapped her in the face so hard that it made her fall to the ground, putting Ash back in her place. She just got back up and walked away, saying ‘I’m so sorry’ repeatedly in shame. 

Chris found something peculiarly cautious within the stranger’s journal. _“Oh no…that’s not good at all. Girls, we’ve gotta get to Mike, like right now!”_ He then took ahold of his shotgun and paced towards the basement’s exit armed, Emily following him without question. 

Ashley started to follow as well, but that was before her eye caught Mike’s revolver on that desk. She quickly yet quietly grabbed and pocketed it inside the back of her pants, following the others afterwards. 


	9. Perilous Times

**_(February 2nd of 2015, 05:03 A.M. Blackwood Mountain’s Sewer.)_ **

Mike was in the tunnels leading to the sanatorium, right outside one of the entrances, that being two metal doors. 

But as he was about to open the door, he heard a guy’s voice behind him from a short distance: _“Mike, wait! Don’t go in yet!”_

Mike turned around to see Chris running toward him, Emily and Ashley not far behind. _“I thought I told you all to stay in the basement!”_

_“We know, but look. I got good news and bad news. Good news: Emily’s not gonna turn since standard bites are safe. Bad news: you can’t go in there. I read through that old guy's diary or whatever and saw that there are many more Wendigos imprisoned inside the sanatorium; you’ll be walking into a trap.”_

_“Wait…you mean there’re more of them?”_

_“A shitload.”_

_“Well Chris, I greatly appreciate the info, but I’m still going. Josh has the cable car key, and we gotta have a plan B in case rescue doesn’t arrive at dawn.”_

As Mike turned around to open the doors, Chris then demanded: _“At least let me go with you!”_

 _“Why?”_

_“Because I have a weapon and you don’t. Plus, you can’t seriously expect to get both a schizo and a preggo back to the lodge by yourself.”_

_“Chris, are you 100% sure you want to?”_

_“No. I'm 100% sure I HAVE to. I’m aware there are risks. But I’ve known both Josh and Sam since I was eight years old. If I just sit back and two of my friends along with their unborn child end up eaten alive due to my inaction…I-I don’t think I’ll ever forgive myself.”_

Mike took a few seconds to take Chris’ small speech in; he could hear the determination in his voice. 

He finally agreed to let him come, nodding and patting his shoulder in respect as he said: _“You have a heart of gold, my dude. Come on, let’s go.”_

Emily volunteered to add more backup. _“I’m going too.”_

_“No, two people’s enough. If something goes down in there, we don’t want anything getting in the way or slowing us down. And, just in case the rescue team does come and we somehow don’t make it back, you gotta make sure your side of the story gets told to the authorities. No one can come to this mountain ever again.”_

Ashley immediately agreed with Mike that it was better to be safe than sorry: _“So, we’ll head back to the lodge then?”_

_“Atta girl.”_

_“Go back and stay in the basement.”_ , Chris told the girls. _“If we’re not back when the rescue squad arrives, we won’t be back at all.”_

Chris and Mike finally went into the sanatorium together, locking the doors behind them while leaving Em and Ash all by themselves. 

Our dynamic duo made their journey through the ongoing tunnel until they got upstairs to the chapel, with everything in a worse condition than before. Up the stairs on the east side of the room, Mike dropped down a hole into a locked smaller room containing a torch, a sawed-off shotgun and some shells, which he shared with Chris as he wielded a shotgun too. There was a large hole leading to a small corner outside through the rightmost door on the west side of the room, where they found various crosses of deceased sanatorium workers, all bearing the same date (February 24th of 1952). 

After shooting the lock off the middle gate and kicking it open with a grunt, Mike reunited with a wolf that he befriended during his previous visit.

 _“Hey, big guy.”_ , Mike exclaimed. _“Happy to see me again, huh?”_

As Mike knelt down to pet Wolfie, Chris' curiosity seemed piqued. _“I didn’t know you had a pet wolf.”_

_“Yeah, I found him when I was here earlier. I kicked him because he scared the living hell outta me, but then I gave him a nearby bone. Next thing you know, we’re BFFs!”_

_“Ha, nice.”_ Chris tried to come pet Wolfie too but the latter growled, making the former back up.

_“It’s okay boy, Chris here’s with me. We’re all friends here.”_

Wolfie seemed okay after hearing that as he finally allowed Chris to come over and pet him, making both humans smile. 

_“See? Good boy.”_ , Mike said admiring Wolfie’s willingness to get along. _“Alright pal, you’re comin’ with us now. Here’s the plan: We happened to see a map of this place, so we’re not flying blind. There should be a way through the psychiatric wing that’ll take us right outside the mine. Think you can handle that?”_

Wolfie ran ahead of Mike and Chris to guide them. _“I’ll take that as a yes.”_

The trio then traversed through a fenced outdoor path leading to another building of the sanatorium, containing the psychiatric ward and a restraining area. After squeezing through a small section with a jammed gate, they went downstairs and kept walking until coming across the disemboweled corpse of another (albeit darker) gray wolf surrounded by flies, disturbing the human duo and making Wolfie bark out loud.

 _“The body’s still bleeding; it’s gotta be fresh.”_ , Chris noted.

_“Jesus Christ, the fuck have we gotten ourselves into…?”_

If the body was still fresh, then the killer could be nearby. So they just kept moving forward as they didn’t wanna wait for said killer, and their guard was definitely up at all times. 

They eventually reached a room nearing the end of another hallway, inside of which was a projector. Mike turned it on as it showed a video of a restrained patient undergoing a strange transformation, ending with him attacking the makers of said video after turning into a violent creature. Outside the room and at the very end of the hallway, there was another room with a desk drawer containing a dossier series of photos of a miner named Billy Bates. They show some form of “before/after” transformation occurring over several days, and the miner had clearly become a Wendigo by the end of it. 

_“Jesus hot sauce Christmas cake, this is fuckin’ unbelievable.”_ , Mike exclaimed in amazement.

 _“What?! What jackass eats Christmas cakes with hot sauce?”_ , Chris asked.

_“I don’t fucking know man, I just like talking out of my ass sometimes.”_

In the same room, there was light streaming through a cracked wooden wall. Mike rammed it open and shot a second gate lock to come across a dead man’s skeletal remains with a note on his lap and a glass bottle on his desk. The note was signed by Jefferson Bragg: ‘To whom it may concern, They are dying outside. I hear them screaming and crying. This hell is my only legacy. God’s punishment for my mistakes. No escaping from my fate. Death awaits me now.’

Chris picked up and smelled the bottle; it reeked! _“Poison. He committed suicide.”_

_“Yeah, and it looks like you weren’t wrong about there being more monsters. Glad you came with me.”_

_“When we’re back home safe, I will be too.”_

After discovering all the clues they could possibly find, Mike and Chris finally regrouped with Wolfie and entered a wide room. An aluminum can fell off a small container and onto the concrete floor, startling the duo as they kept their shotguns pointed out. It turned out to only be a rat.

As the rat scurried away, a Wendigo jumped down from the ceiling in front of Mike. He shot it as it leapt towards him, repelling it backwards like usual: _“Ha! Ha! How’s that feel, you fuck?!”_ Mike, Chris and Wolfie ran away upstairs, with the Wendigo close behind. They went through the doorway on the left-hand side and quickly barricaded the actual door shut with a cabinet. The flame on Mike’s torch died and then he hit the Wendigo in the face with his machete through a hole in the door before the trio ran into the next room, locking a different door behind them.

Everyone had to hide behind a desk and catch a glass bottle from hitting the hard ground before escaping into the restraining area hallway, with cages full of Wendigos on both hand sides, repeatedly trying but failing to grab the human duo as they shot them all backwards in their cells.

But at one point, Mike got grabbed and Chris had to shoot the Wendigo off of him, leaving huge claw marks on the former's neck. 

_“Shit dude, you okay?!”_ , Chris asked.

_“Aaarghh…yeah I’m fine. Stings like a motherfucker, but…I can keep going.”_

Eventually and suddenly, a pair of unrestrained Wendigos came out and chased the heroes to a locked door at the end of the hallway; had there not been an explosive oil barrel to roll towards and shoot near the monsters and thus release their spirits into the air, they’d probably be killed right then and there.

Still going, our heroes got through the door and walked through a long mess of rooms until more Wendigos started to pursue them down another hallway in the psychiatric ward. They all ran, shooting a lock off of a door and then immediately jumping down a big hole inside the room. But for some reason, Wolfie wouldn’t follow Mike and Chris beyond that point and just looked down.

Mike tried to reassure Wolfie: _“Hey buddy…come on down, it’s alright.”_ But it was too late; the Wendigo was in the room. It leapt towards and onto the defensively-stanced wolf, slaughtering him and saddening the two men at the same time. _“What the FUCK?!”_

They didn't wanna let Wolfie’s sacrifice be in vain or end their rescue mission so abruptly, so Mike and Chris continued forward. 

After jumping down a ledge, the exit was literally right there up a small flight of stairs. Mike tried to push the doors directly leading to the outside open, but they just wouldn’t open for some reason. The Wendigos got down the hole, cornering him and Chris. 

_“You hold ‘em off, I’ll get the doors open!”_ , Chris suggested. While Mike shot at the Wendigos to buy him some time, he noticed that the room was full of oil drums. 

Four rams in, still nothing. _“Ah, come ON!!”_ Chris then peeked outdoors to see a wooden plank barracading the doors jammed shut from the other side. He shot the very center of said doors twice, blasting the board in half and thus allowing our heroes to finally escape. _“Mike, I got it!!”_

 _“I hope so, because otherwise I just roasted myself…LITERALLY!”_ Immediately after cracking that joke, Mike shot the oil drums, causing the entire room to explode and killing all the monsters in it. As he and Chris ran outside, the blast from the explosion sent them both hurling into the snow and two Wendigo spirits were released into thin air.

Seeing the sanatorium go down in flames, our two heroes ran as far as they could until they reached the entrance of the mines, that being a heavy steel door. Chris was out of ammo for his shotgun, so he used it to barricade said door behind them just in case there were any surviving Wendigos. He and Mike expressed concern for one another’s safety before heading off to find Josh and Sam.

 _“You alright, man?”_ , Mike asked Chris.

_“Define alright.”_

_“Are you still alive? Can you walk? Do you have all ten of your fingers, unlike me?”_

_“Uhhh, yeah I guess. How about you?”_

_“I’ll make it. Let’s find a way down to where this fucker lives.”_


	10. With Friends Like These...

**_(February 2nd of 2015, 05:06 A.M. Blackwood Mountain’s Sewer.)_ **

After Mike and Chris split up from the group to go into the sanatorium, Emily and Ashley were left all alone to head back to the lodge…but then suddenly, the former was using her left arm to aggressively pin the latter against the nearby wall.

 _“What’s your problem!?”_ , Ashley asked defensively.

_“Listen to me. I’m not gonna hurt you, but as soon as we get outta here? I hope you have a good lawyer, because I’m taking your scrawny ass straight to court for trying to get me and Chris killed.”_

_“Oh…yeah, that.”_

_“Wh…? The fuck do you mean, that? What else did you expect me to talk about?”_

_“What? Oh, n-nothing, I just thought that…”_

Before Ashley could finish her sentence, Emily heard a mysteriously folded-up piece of paper fall out of her jacket sleeve and onto the ground. 

Emily backed up from Ashley and picked up the paper, unfolding it to see a torn-out page from Hannah’s diary. 

The page said: ‘January 23rd of 2014. Uugggh, Emily is SO annoying!! Seriously, what does Mike see in her? She’s so rude and selfish, and she doesn’t even bother trying to be anything else. Also, Mike turned me down today and now I’m sad. :’( Good news though! Last night, I found some drug dealers and bought some special pills. If Mike and Em don’t break up (which they really should TBH even if I somehow DON’T love him), I’ll just resort to Plan B and have my way with him using the pills. I don’t care what anyone says, Michael Munroe is my future hubby and he WILL show me a good time! I’ll do my best to be gentle…’

_“I remember Jessica telling me about something like this. I-I didn’t believe her and we had a falling-out. But, why do you have it?”_

Flashback time: that page was the catalyst of Hannah and Beth’s disappearance. One night during last year’s vacation on the mountain, Ashley chatted with Jessica, who said that she saw Hannah flirting with Mike and was about to snoop through her bedroom while she was out skiing to see how she likes it when the role of disrespecting others’ property gets reversed onto her. Ashley sneakily went to the room first and found her diary, forging one of the pages to make it look like she was being overly obsessive over her crush on Mike to the point where she was about to cross a line. Had Jessica not found that page in her room in the first place, she would’ve simply talked to Hannah instead of staging that mean prank towards her. Simply put; it’s Ashley’s fault that the twins were lost, and she kept the page as a creepy souvenir.

But before Ashley could even have enough time to come up with a valid response to Emily’s question in the real world, another random girl was heard calling for help from underneath the nearby manhole cover. Speaking of which, it actually sounded an awful lot like Jessica herself. 

_“Is that…Jess?”_ , Emily asked.

_“Yeah it sounds like her, but…didn’t Mike say she was dead?”_

Em put the page in her pocket and then slowly walked over to the manhole to investigate. She tried to remove the heavy metal cover but couldn’t because it was rusted shut. _“Agh…dammit. Jessica!! Can you hear us!? We’re up here!!! It’s us, Emily and Ashley!”_

After several seconds of looking down, it turned out to not be Jess at all. 

It was the pale slender Wendigo that killed the stranger, leaping out of nowhere in a LITERAL jump-scare after simply mimicking Jessica’s voice in order to lure out its prey. It pounced upwards trying to get Emily, but instead just crashed face-first right into the metal cover as the girl jumped backwards and fell to the ground in shock. As she stood back up, she noticed the rust keeping the cover on slowly but surely starting to come loose as the monster was repeatedly bashing on it. _“Oh shit…!”_

The monster was about a minute away from breaking through.

Emily quickly turned around and tried to run away…but that was until she saw Ashley holding her at gunpoint using Mike’s revolver, which she had previously taken up two chapters earlier. This is the second betrayal that Emily herself was faced with all night, but unfortunately not like last time, Chris and Mike weren’t there to save her. 

_“Ashley…why?!”_

Emily was caught completely off-guard as Ashley grew a knowing smile on her face and then shot her once in each kneecap, rendering her completely unable to stand as she fell to the ground and yelled out in pain. 

_“Who’s the bitch now?”_ That call-back was the last thing Ashley said to Emily before running away, effectively leaving her to die. She actually originally intended to just shoot her in the head to dispose of any evidence to her crimes, but the current circumstances had left her with no other option except using live bait to get away.

_“I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU!!! YOU FUCKING BITCH!!!”_

Ultimately, Emily’s defiance fell on deaf ears as the manhole cover finally came loose, crashing upwards into the ceiling.

There was repeated loud breathing in both pain and fear before the Wendigo finally popped out of the manhole, clinging to the ceiling and screeching so loud that it could probably break glass. The then-crippled Emily let out one last scream of complete utter terror before the monster leapt onto her and then bit deep into her neck, permanently damaging her voicebox. It then shoved its hand onto her face, muffling her pained shouting as it ripped out her guts and other internal organs to feast upon while she was still conscious. 

After several agonizing seconds of being eaten alive, Emily was dead.


	11. Cry of Fear

**_(February 2nd of 2015, 06:10 A.M. Blackwood Mountain’s Caves.)_**

Josh was curled up into a panicked state on his knees, having one last hallucination of Dr. Hill, who was making popping noises with his mouth supposedly emulating the dripping of water. He got up from his desk and walked over to Josh.

_“I wonder how much these sessions are of any help to you now. You just won’t listen to me and things seem pretty…fucked up. So I-I’m going to leave you now, Josh. It’s time you learned there’s more to be afraid of than can be dreamt up by the unhinged imagination of a self-indulgent spoiled little BRAT!!! You had so many people who cared about you, who were willing to help, but at every turn you choose to push them away and now you’re all alone. Though by the sounds of things, you won’t be alone for long. No, you won’t be alone for long. Deep breaths, Josh. Deep breath…”_ Those were the last words Hill said before walking away, permanently disappearing from Josh’s head.

There were mysterious rapid noises nearby as Josh heard many voices in his head (i.e. Hannah and Beth singing ‘Frère Jacques’, Mike and Chris calling him a coward and a murderer, Ashley begging for mercy, and the Psycho laughing and boasting about time running out), causing his anxiety to rise almost through the roof.

Suddenly, he had a vision of his undead sister Beth calling his name.

_“No, no no no…you’re not real.”_ , Josh exclaimed in denial. 

_“We were all alone down there.”_

_“No no…no no not again.”_

There was also an undead Hannah: _“All alone. But you’re with us now. Family.”_

_“No…get away! Get away from me!!! Get away!!!”_

_“Why didn’t you save us, Josh? Why did you want us to die?”_

_“I didn’t want you to die, I swear!”_

The wall in front of Josh suddenly turned into a knife cutting through pig skin, possibly symbolizing the pigs that he himself had to kill in order to pull off his prank. As a squealing pig head emerged from the wall, he punched it and its head fell to the ground dead. Entrails followed onto said ground, making Josh exclaim in disgust as the giant, blood-soaked, and decayed visions of his two younger sisters emerged and towered over him. 

_“I don’t…I don’t take orders from you!”_

Hannah ripped her own face off, revealing a skull. _“Is this what you want?”_

_“NO, NO!!! Why are you doing this?! Leave me alone!!! Why are you doing this?!”_

_“Why didn’t you save us, Josh? Why did you want us to die?”_

_“You’re dead…you’re dead!”_

Suddenly, Josh heard another girl’s voice nearby. He turned his head to see a confused Sam, who’d been abducted into the depths alongside him. 

_“Josh? What’s going on?”_

_“N-Nothing. I’m okay, I’m fine. Everything’s fine. ”_

He then suddenly heard the Psycho’s (a.k.a. his own masked self’s) voice: _“Oh Josh…”_ The masked figure then appeared out of thin air, wielding a machete in his right hand and elevating Sam by her nape using his left. _“You poor simple fool, we both know that’s not true.”_

Josh quickly tried to run towards the Psycho in an attempt to help Sam, only to find his ankle randomly chained to two cinderblocks. They were way too heavy and he wasn’t strong enough to break through the chain, rendering him physically unable to do anything. 

_“No. No, no, no…LET GO OF HER!!”_

As a choked Sam managed to barely let out Josh’s name, the Psycho sadistically laughed at the pair’s expense as he drove his machete through her heart, killing her almost instantly. 

_“NOOO!!!”_

And it didn’t even stop there; the Psycho then used his machete to slowly slice through and make a huge tear in Sam’s torso, after which he stuck his hand inside of her and pulled out a dead fetus, topping it all off by saying: _“You bring misery to everyone around you.”_

It was all very clear now from Josh’s hallucinations; he felt guilty for basically everything happening to him, justified or not. He’s suffered from extreme mental health issues ever since he was 11 years old, and his defective medication combined with simply yelling at his inner demons to just shut up or go away never working eventually led to him simply giving into his unwanted urges as he considered himself too weak to fight back without proper aid. He may be unhinged, but he’s not a total monster. 

Josh was greatly disturbed and saddened by watching the only person he had ever truly loved (excluding his sisters) die horribly, that he collapsed onto his knees and started crying.

 ** _(Meanwhile…)_**

In reality, Sam was down on Josh’s level, shaking him in a desperate attempt to snap him back into the real world.

 _“Josh. Josh? Josh, it’s me Sam! ANSWER ME!!”_

Even despite his recent actions, Sam REALLY didn’t want to give up on Josh. Why? The short answer: because she loved him. She practically had nobody else left; her other friends either were gone or had lives of their own, whereas Josh gladly gave her a place to stay after her mom died and her house burned down. The two had a real connection before he went crazy, so she was just hoping that the good boy she once knew was still there deep down.

_“Josh…?”_

But at that point, Josh was so deluded and heartbroken that all he could even think about doing was babble to himself: _“I brought you all to this shithole mountain and now you’re dead because of me. I’m so sorry Sammy, I’m so sorry…!”_

Sam started crying, worried that it may already be too late. _“Josh…I need you. Don’t you dare leave me, not you too!”_

Josh couldn’t hear Sam no matter how hard she tried to talk through to him. As she looked behind her and saw a wooden door, she considered exiting through there…while leaving him behind, as he seemed too far gone to be saved. He was too heavy to carry, plus she had to think about her unborn child. 

Before making her way towards the exit, Sam passionately held Josh’s hands tight and kissed him on the lips for several seconds as a final goodbye.

But surprisingly enough, the kiss seemed to have unintentionally worked as he questioned Sam’s crying. _“Hey hey, what’s the matter?”_

Sam looked and was pretty surprised by the genuine curiosity in Josh’s voice, compared to his previous disturbance. _“D…Josh, d-do you hear me?”_

_“Should I not or something?”_

_“How many fingers am I holding up right now?”_

The answer was four on one hand and three on the other. 

_“Sam, I’m not a baby. But seven.”_

Sam could tell from the tone in Josh’s voice combined with the correct answer that he was very much lucid again, cheering her up as she now had no reason to leave him behind. Her tears of sadness turned to that of joy as she then grew a big smile on her face and hugged him tightly; he was greatly confused but gladly returned the hug nonetheless. 

_“W-Where am I, what’s going on? Is this real?”_

_“Yes, yes it is. We’re in some cave, I think. You were, like, having a daydream and I brought you back.”_

As Josh and Sam were reconciling, there were two males heard exclaiming in both disgust and grief from a distance behind the wooden exit.


	12. The Devil’s Chronicle

**_(February 2nd of 2015, 06:09 A.M. Blackwood Mountain’s Caves.)_**

Mike and Chris continued their journey within the mines, still searching for their two friends while also reviewing what they saw and found within the sanatorium.

_“Hard to believe those…things were human once. Or are so fucking old now.”_ , Chris said.

_“Yeah. They cleaned the place out, killed a lot of people.”_

_“Sounds about right. Oh, and…sorry about your wolf, man.”_

_“I am too. Damn, that would’ve been a badass pet to bring home!”_

_“Think Ashley and Emily are okay, holding their own back at the lodge?”_

_“Yeah, they’re probably fine. I hope so anyway, cause it’s a little late to turn back now.”_

Along the duo’s path was a pond of water, which they had to jump down and wade through as it was the only visible direction. But before going that route, they spotted and walked towards a tiny area on their nearby left: a small crater surrounded by two large wooden planks and a few bones. 

Inside the crater was a small brown watch named ‘Beth W’, which Chris picked up and held out for Mike to see. _“Whoa…Mike, look at this.”_

_“Is that Beth’s watch?”_

_“Yeah…this was her grave, looks like. See these boards? Used to be a cross.”_

_“Well she’s clearly not buried here anymore, so…where’s the body?”_

_“I remember Emily saying she found Beth’s head while she was down here earlier, so probably a different area. I’ve already seen one real-life decapitation and I definitely don’t wanna see another, so I’ll just have to take her word for it.”_

Mike then suddenly noticed a book right next to the boards. He shined his flashlight towards it while asking what it was, catching Chris’ curiosity too as he picked up and opened the book.

It was an old dirty journal with pages exactly in their friend Hannah’s handwriting. Chris read the pages out loud to Mike as he flipped through. 

Day 1 wrote: ‘My little sister is dead. The fall killed her… I watched the color drain from her face. My leg is broken. I’m all alone, stuck here with Beth’s body. Someone will come soon.’

Day 5 wrote: ‘I’ve never been so  HUNGRY. It feels like my stomach is twisting around inside. I took Beth’s sweater. Much warmer now. She’s still looking out for me.’

Day 30 wrote: ‘I’m sorry Beth. I have no choice. I’m DYING. It’s the only way I can survive any more. If someone finds this I’m SORRY. I had to. I had no choice. Forgive me Beth. I’m sorry.’

_“What does it mean?”_ , Mike asked. _“Jesus…”_

Day 33 wrote: ‘My hands feel unclean. My nails fell out; PUSHED OUT. I am aching but no more COLD. NO PAIN. I am getting stronger!!’

The entire last page was crisscrossed with dark black lines, with the faint view of the words ‘HUNGER HUNGER HUNGER’ and ‘BETH’. 

_“Oh my god. It all makes sense now.”_ , Chris exclaimed in shock.

_“What, what makes sense?”_

_“Mike…I-I think Hannah fucking ate Beth.”_

At first, Mike was in denial. _“No. That’s…that’s ridiculous.”_

_“What else could the book possibly imply? Both sisters fell down here; Beth died instantly, Hannah survived. There’s a pretty good water source here, but a human being can only live for so long without any nutrients. And Hannah was down here for about a month.”_

_“Goddammit. God-dammit…”_

_“She must’ve buried Beth at first, but then over time got so hungry that she dug her up.”_

_“Fuck!”_

_“We gotta find Josh and Sam. Right now.”_

After making that gruesome discovery, Mike and Chris then moved on, jumping down into the aforementioned pond. The water was so cold that their fingers were numb, and so deep that their legs were below the surface. As there was a fork in the path, they waded right to the direction of a huge nearby wheel until they reached the other side. When they climbed up to shore, there was a big steel door with a lever that needed to be opened. 

Upon opening the door, Chris and Mike were absolutely horrified as water suddenly gushed out and out came the rolling decapitated heads of the flamethrower man, and their friends Matt and Jessica with the latter missing her lower jaw.

Jessica’s head disturbed Mike the most as he pointed to it, exclaiming ‘whoa’ and ‘Jesus’ in distress. _“That’s Jess…that’s Jess…!”_

Entering through the doorway into what was basically a meat locker, Mike and Chris exclaimed in both disgust and grief as their eyes gazed upon the decapitated corpses of Matt, the flamethrower man, Jessica, and Emily with both her neck and belly torn open. 

_“Oh my go…”_ , Chris said while trying not to puke.

_“Bodies; a lot of them.”_

_“And most of them friends. I think I’m gonna be sick…”_

Both the sight and smell were so horrid that, if the Wendigos weren’t around, you’d swear this den belonged to an Ed Gein copycat.

After a good minute of slow-walking and grieving, Mike peeked through a wooden entrance and told Chris to ‘wait’ and ‘hold on’, as Sam and Josh were found hugging each other on their knees. To Chris’ delight, their objective was finally complete!

But little did anyone know that the main Wendigo was right on their tail, lurking behind them from within the nearby pond…


End file.
